6-year sentence for driver who killed motorcyclist in wrong-way crash

Share this:

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- A motorist who had marijuana in his system when he drove the wrong way on Interstate 5 near the U.S.-Mexico border, causing a collision that killed a motorcyclist, was sentenced Wednesday to six years in state prison.

Richard Gideon Hammond, 29, was convicted in February of gross vehicular manslaughter.

Hammond was heading north on the southbound side of the freeway about 5:15 a.m. on Dec. 3, 2016, when his 2007 Mazda 3 sedan crashed into an oncoming 2016 Yamaha motorcycle near Dairy Mart Road in Nestor.

Hammond's car spun out of control and was hit by a 2000 Dodge Dakota truck driven by a 33-year-old National City woman who had three children in her vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The motorcyclist, 27-year-old Daniel Reyes of Chula Vista, died at the scene.

Hammond and the driver of the truck were treated for minor injuries, but the children in the truck were not hurt.